MOTOR RELICENSING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 132, 4 May 1940, Page 6

MOTOR RELICENSING.

NEW PLATES AND COUPONS. CAUSES OF DELAY. Shortages of steel to be used in the ■ making of motor number plates, some of that for New Zealand having been used for air raid precautions work in England, with also the difficulty in securing supplies of papei, have led to the commencement of the relicensing of motor vehicles, usually carried out from May l*to May 31, being postponed until May 6, next Monday. The new number plates will have white numbers on a Venetian red background. Motorists will be required to state the horse-power of their vehicles when applying for registration, and will be issued with a year’s supply of •coupons. The current issue of coupons will be obsolete after May 31. The colours and quantities for which the coupons will be good are as follow: One-gallon coupons, with violet background, • for motor-cycles; two-gallon coupons, with red background, for cars under 9 5 h.p.; three-gallon coupons, with yellow background, for cars between 9.5 h.p. and 14.5 h.p.; fourgallon coupons, with green background, for cars over 14,5 h.p. The coupons will be in perforated sheets, as are the coupons now in use; and 36, sufficient for a year if the ration is not altered, will bo handed to each car owner. The sheets are being numbered, so that none may go astray and so that a system of auditing may be maintained. The coupons have been designed so as to make forgery difficult, being overprinted on a coloured background that is hard to copy. Only one case of forgery of the current coupons has been discovered, but the authorities realise that coupons should not be easy to make. ' , ~ V Owners of large cars, who use the four-gallon coupons, will not'be compelled to buy petrol ”i four-gallon lots,-for it has been announced officially that service station attendants will be allowed to accept a four-gallon coupon for a'smaller quantity of spirit and give “change” in smaller coupons if they have them. An owner will' have to sthte the kind of fuel the, car uses. The kind of fuel has become of importance since there has been a tendency to use substitutes for petrol. Cars which do not use petrol, and whose owners thus do not contribute petrol tax, are liable to ray mileage'tax. The numbers allotted to the private cars in the Palmerston North district will range from 97,101 to 110,100.